Confidential Agent
Encyclopedia
Confidential Agent is a 1945 spy film
made by Warner Bros.
It was directed by Herman Shumlin
and produced by Robert Buckner
with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. The screenplay
was by Robert Buckner, based on the novel The Confidential Agent
by Graham Greene
. The music score was by Franz Waxman
and the cinematography by James Wong Howe
.
The film stars Charles Boyer
and Lauren Bacall
.
, reviews of Confidential Agent were largely negative, with particular aspersions cast on Bacall's performance. According to film historian Robert Gitt, host of the featurette, Warner studio head Jack L. Warner was lobbied to order certain scenes in The Big Sleep reshot in order to rectify performance issues with Bacall identified in Confidential Agent, which he did.
Spy film
The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...
made by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
It was directed by Herman Shumlin
Herman Shumlin
Herman Shumlin was a prolific Broadwaytheatrical director and theatrical producer beginning in 1927 with the play Celebrity and continuing through 1974 with a short run of As You Like It, notably with an all male cast...
and produced by Robert Buckner
Robert Buckner
Robert Buckner was a film screenwriter, producer and short story writer.He wrote the screenplays for films including Knute Rockne All American...
with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was by Robert Buckner, based on the novel The Confidential Agent
The Confidential Agent
The Confidential Agent is a thriller novel by British author Graham Greene. Fueled by Benzedrine, Greene wrote it in six weeks. To avoid distraction while working, he rented a room in Bloomsbury from a landlady who lived in an apartment below him. He used that apartment in the novel and had an...
by Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
. The music score was by Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman was a German-American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films....
and the cinematography by James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe, A.S.C. was a Chinese American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films...
.
The film stars Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
and Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
.
Cast
- Charles Boyer as Luis Denard
- Lauren Bacall as Rose Cullen
- Victor FrancenVictor FrancenVictor Francen , born Victor Franssens, was a Belgian-born actor with a long career in French cinema and in Hollywood....
as Licata - Wanda HendrixWanda HendrixWanda Hendrix was an American film and television actress.Born Dixie Wanda Hendrix in Jacksonville, Florida, Hendrix was performing in her local amateur theater when she was seen by a talent agent who signed her to a Hollywood contract...
as Else - George CoulourisGeorge CoulourisGeorge Coulouris was a prominent English film and stage actor.-Early life:Coulouris was born in Manchester, England, the son of Abigail and Nicholas Coulouris, a merchant of Greek origin. He was brought up both in Manchester and nearby Urmston and was educated at Manchester Grammar School...
as Captain Currie - Peter LorrePeter LorrePeter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
as Contreras - Katina PaxinouKatina PaxinouKatina Paxinou was a Greek film and theatre actress.-Early life:Born Aikaterini Konstantopoulou in Piraeus, Greece, she trained as an opera singer, and appeared in the operatic version of Maeterlinck's "Sister Beatrice," with a score by Dimitri Mitropoulos, but changed career and joined the Greek...
as Mrs. Melandez - John WarburtonJohn Warburton (actor)John Warburton was a British-born American actor that appeared in numerous Hollywood movies in the 1930s to 1960s, starting with RKO's Secrets of the French Police , who also guest starred in television series such as Perry Mason and the Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror".Warburton was born in...
as Neil Forbes - Holmes HerbertHolmes HerbertHolmes Herbert was an English character actor who appeared in Hollywood films from 1915 to 1952.Born as 'Horace Jenner', Holmes Herbert emigrated to the United States in 1912. He was the first son of Ned Herbert , who worked as and actor/comedian in the English Theatre...
as Lord Benditch - Dan SeymourDan SeymourDan Seymour was a character actor who frequently played villains in Warner Bros. films. He appeared in several Humphrey Bogart films, including Casablanca, Key Largo, and To Have and Have Not....
as Mr. Muckerji - Art Foster as Chauffeur
- Miles ManderMiles ManderMiles Mander , born Lionel Henry Mander , was a well-known and versatile English character actor of the early Hollywood cinema, also a film director and producer, and a playwright and novelist.-Early life:Miles Mander was the second son of Theodore Mander, builder of Wightwick Manor, of the prominent...
as Mr. Brigstock - Lawrence GrantLawrence GrantPercy Reginald Lawrence-Grant was an English actor known for his supporting roles in films such as The Living Ghost, I'll Tell the World, The Mask of Fu Manchu, and Son of Frankenstein...
as Lord Fetting - Ian WolfeIan WolfeIan Wolfe was an American actor whose films date from 1934 to 1990. Until 1934, he worked as a theatre actor. Wolfe mostly found work as a character actor, appearing in over 270 films...
as Dr. Bellows - George ZuccoGeorge ZuccoGeorge Desylla Zucco was an English character actor who appeared, almost always in supporting roles, in 96 films during a career spanning two decades, from 1931 to 1951. He is fondly remembered for his roles in classic horror films.-Early life:Zucco was born in Manchester, England...
as Detective Geddes
Reception
According to "The Big Sleep Comparisons 1945/46", a featurette on the 2000 DVD release of Bacall's later film The Big SleepThe Big Sleep (1946 film)
The Big Sleep is a 1946 film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. The movie stars Humphrey Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as the female lead in a film about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its...
, reviews of Confidential Agent were largely negative, with particular aspersions cast on Bacall's performance. According to film historian Robert Gitt, host of the featurette, Warner studio head Jack L. Warner was lobbied to order certain scenes in The Big Sleep reshot in order to rectify performance issues with Bacall identified in Confidential Agent, which he did.